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Good morning, everybody, Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. When do we have Crystal.
Indeed, we do a top Republican talking about some big scary threat set Washington on fire?
Is it a sye up spoiler alert? Yes it is. We'll break it all down for you, we'll talk about it.
We also have the last addition, I believe, of our RFK Junior focus groups, some really interesting comments.
They're kind of pressed on.
Okay, but if the election is really coming down to it's either going to be Trump or Biden, are you still sticking with RFK Junior. Very interesting responses there. This comes a mid A report. We'll get into whether this is just a tott hit job or whether it's that any they're there, but about his campaign staffing and chaos, etc. So again we'll break that down for you. We've also got to take a look at the continued liberal meltdown
over John Stewart's return. Mary Trump said that he is a threat to democracy, so I mean, we just couldn't resist with that one. Also, in more serious news, we've got some breaking news this morning. Israeli forces are storming the largest remaining operational hospital in the Gaza Strip, threatening tens of thousands of Palestinians who've been sheltering there. Of course hundreds of patients who've been seeking care there. So
we will give you all of the latest there. I'm taking a look at a truly horrifying and disgusting piece that Haretz ran in the context of Israel's assault on Gaza. Soccer's taking a look at the state of the war in Ukraine, and we're looking forward to have Ryan Gerdeski joining the show again. He's got some harsh criticism for Republicans in the wake of their most recent loss in
New York's third congressional district. So always interesting to hear from Ryan and his assessment, his unvartished assessment of what is going wrong.
Ryan will always shoot it to you straight, and that's what I appreciate and love it.
He does not hold back. He says what he really thinks, whether you agree with him or not.
Absolutely Before we get to that, as a reminder, if you can support our focus group work at breakingpoints dot com the full focus group, and I'll give another one during our focus group segment. We'll be coming out to all of our premium subscribers, I believe tomorrow, and then it will post later.
On on all public platforms.
But if you want to see it, and you want to see it first and support future endeavors like this, you can sign up at breakingpoints dot com. So let's go ahead and start with the great threat?
What is it? This set Washington a light.
My phone has never buzzed more than in the hours that this was all going on.
This all started yesterday at.
Eleven thirty five am with a very ominous statement from Representative Mike Turner. He's the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He said this quote. Let's put this up there on the screen today. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has made available to all members of Congress information concerning
a serious national security threat. I am requesting President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond. Immediately, people are like, wait, what are we under attack?
You know, some of us may have been wondering whether it was aliens. We were like, what is happening here? Is it Iran? Is it China? What could it possibly be?
Things got even more ominous because just minutes later the White at the White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan took the podium refused to tell.
Us what it was, but he was like wow.
I was frankly surprised that the Congressman had put out the statement.
Here's what he had to say.
So first, I reached out earlier this week to the Gang of Eight to offer myself up for a personal briefing to the Gang of Eight, And in fact, we scheduled a briefing for the four House members of the Gang of Eight tomorrow that's been on the books. So I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today in advance a meeting on the books for me to go sit with him alongside our intelligence and defense professionals tomorrow.
That's his choice to do that.
All I can tell you is that I'm focused on going to see him sit with him as well as the other House members of the Ganga bait tomorrow, and I'm not in a position to say anything further from this podium at this time other than to make the broad point that this administration has gone further and in more creative, more strategic ways dealt with the declassification of intelligence in the national interest of the United States than any administration in history.
Okay, So, as the mystery continue to began to leak out to everybody that this in fact, this threat not Iranian, not Chinese or any of that, It's Russian. And not only is it Russian, it involves space. So here was the details that was immediately broken after a background briefing and some other leaks were strategically placed to the media.
Let's take a lesson.
They confirmed to me that this has to do with a threat related to space.
We already have from our.
Other sourcing that there has been reporting on the Hill that sources here have confirmed is in the ballpark, which is that it has to do with an emerging capability from Russia that would be of grave seriousness potentially.
But that the threat is not immediate. Okay, so the threat is not immediate.
The details on this are so ridiculous, and immediately the syop like alarms began to go off because it became starting to become very clear this is a huge stunt on behalf of Mike Turner. That all involves FAISA reauthorization, which is the ability basically to spy on you're and my communications under the guys spying on foreigners. So one of the ways that we know this is that some of the people who also were privy to the intelligence in terms of the way they described it. Let's put
this up there on the screen. They say, a thing look like it's disturbing. They're like, well, it's a longer term concern, it's not a today thing. People are like, well, it's a serious issue, but it's not an immediate crisis.
Still unclear what it is now.
We do know now that this is apparently based on space based nuclear weapon concerns. And to be clear, this is not a weapon that has been launched. This is a weapon allegedly that is in development. It is a quote satellite killing weapon. Which if deployed, could destroy CRIY, civilian communications, and others. It is not believed to be some sort of weapon out of science fiction that could
be launched from space through the atmosphere into Earth. It's like an anti satellite based device that does happen to be nuclear.
But it is clear crystal that.
Mike Turner, who is one of the most pro or Ukraine Republicans in the House and it has been very frustrated, also very very anti UFO transparency too, by the way, is one of these goods who is trying to incite a massive Sputnek level panic over this, both to push aid for Ukraine and to usher in new FISA reauthorization, especially like the like Russian space nukes. Really, if it's up there and we didn't know about it, okay, that's
one thing, but we're tracking the development. Also, aerospace experts that I now follow for years are like, what is he talking about?
Everyone here has known about this. It's declassified.
In December of twenty twenty three, the Russians made some launch into space. People were openly talking about this. By the way, the weapons development and all of that. You think we don't have an X thirty seven B program that's been going on now for quite some time. So look, yes, is a concern. Sure, you know, it's one of those that's like ever present in all that. Is it clear immediate? Does it you know, require launching some literal panic you
know here in Washington. No, absolutely not. It's just a clear gambit on behalf of Mike Turner.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I mean, anytime someone in this town comes out and is like there's a huge threat, I can't really tell you about it, but you should be very, very scared. You should really start to think about, Okay, what is their motivation here?
What are they trying to accomplish?
And there are two paces that are incredibly significant. Number one is, obviously there is this ongoing debate and we'll talk a little bit more about where we are with this about the Ukraine and Israel funding bill that passed the Senate that looks like it's pretty much dead in the House, but people like Mike Turner very interested in getting that money both to Israel and especially also to Ukraine to continue our proxy war against Russia.
But as you said, Sager, that's actually I.
Don't think even the main action here these you know, hawk neo khon national security like obsessives have as a top priority making sure that the government is able to maintain their really unconstitutional ability to wiretap Americans on a warrantless bass, which they have obviously been doing for years now and been caught in all kinds of scandals with regards to what is called Section seven to ability of
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It is set to expire in April, and so that is actually their top top priority is making sure that they preserve that ability to spy on foreign nationals. Yes, but this is the sort of thing where Americans have gotten caught up in this, including like you know, Black Lives Matter activists and other protesters, including US senators and members of Congress. I mean, the
abuse of this program has been legendary. We're talking hundreds of thousands of queries that are outside of the bounds of effectively the Constitution here. But they want to make sure that they can preserve that particular ability. And so, you know, as we move into talking about the Ukraine and Israebel in that fate, I was actually the red
flags went up for me. I was reading a piece in Playbook, which is, you know, the DC Insider tip sheet rag where they said they may not actually these national security hawk types go to the mat over Ukraine because they're saving their firepower for this other faiza ability that really is their top priority right now. And so you know, making up some terrifying foreign threat, well that's exactly what's used to justify these unconstitutional power grabs at the executive branch level.
So it fits perfectly together.
Yeah, and the way that we know this and this is a huge panic behind the scenes. For example, here's some very choice words. So let's put this up there on the screen. This was flagged to me by one of my friends. Notice, just yesterday in the Washington Poets, the retiring head of the NSSA. He says, quote, I was head of the NSA in a world of threats. This is my biggest worry. I go, oh, what is it?
Is it?
You know, like Russia, China?
No, no, no, no, he says, I worry we would make ourselves blind to external threats such as the ones that I have named above. If Congress allows a critical intelligence Collection Authority Section seven oh two of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to expire in April, or renews it with crippling restrictions. Either move would be a self inflicted wound that our nation cannot afford. He says, I was at the Pentagon when people tried to crash on some Tember eleventh.
As they found out through basically the FAIZA and its current form, the seven oh two authorization and more has all basically been a part of the Patriot Act infrastructure that was enacted immediately after nine to eleven. It was also a key part of some of the abuses that Edward Snowden revealed back in the day in twenty thirteen
with his original leaks. There was some sort of reauthorization and changes to the program in twenty eighteen in response to some of the Russia Gate concerns that we saw previously, for example with Carter Page and many of the other things that you just discussed. But behind the scenes, this is the single most important priority other than Ukraine aid for these Russia hawks, because it's one of the ways
that they allegedly spy on Russians. Now, as critics of the program, including Rand Paul and many you know, Republican more libertarian minded folks, would show you, is that it
often allows for the mass collection of American data. And the perfect example is you or I. If we are communing as American citizens with a member of who is somebody who is not a US citizen who is outside of the country, our communications can be swept up in there and then further declassified, non anonymised and used to spy on us without obtaining a warrant through the normal procedure of which you would need to spy directly on an American citizen.
It is a direct backdoor by.
The NSA and others for a mass data collection of US citizens and has been directly abused by members of the Obama Bush Trump administration to spy on domestic political opponents. We have evident, direct evidence of all of us, and the fact that it's even a question is outrageous. In the year twenty twenty three, we're not living in nine to eleven hysteria anymore, which is part of why you got to have space nukes.
Yeah, yeah, you need a new hysteria. That's and that was the goal of this whole thing, Just to give you guys a little bit of a sense. The Brendan Center has been tracking all of the abuses of Section seven ZHO two. They say to give just a few examples, the FBI is conducted warrantless searches of Section seven oh two acquired information access communications of Black Lives Matter protesters, US government officials, journalists, political commentators in nineteen thousand donors
to a single congressional campaign. The FBI conducted two hundred thousand of these backdoor searches in twenty twenty two alone. Yeah, so this is and this is the top priority of the national and security hawks to make sure they can continue to spy on you and me and political activists and journalists and government and officials who they think are doing something untoward that.
They don't like. And so it is outrageous.
And it was so naked, this particular SiGe up that people immediately saw through what he was up to here with his you know, vague warnings of some amorphous threat that we should all be terrified over.
Exactly right. So anyway, that's you can probably sleep easier. Everything is fine.
Even if they do put a nuke in space, allegedly at some point in the future, it would be anti satellite. I I will tell you anti satellite is one of those things I enjoy reading about just because it's kind of fun about the idea of what everything looks like up there. We have plenty of things at our disposal, as I understand it, that we would be able to use against such a weapons platform and all the others. I am not worried about it, really at all.
Let's move on to the next part.
As you said, Crystal, about the fate of the Ukraine bill. Now, the pressure that is currently coming down on Speaker Mike Johnson is immense from all sides, including though by the way, on the Democrats, who are nearly unanimous in wanting to pass this combined bill for aid to Ukraine and to Israel.
To give you a taste of what some of the criticism looks like from the Biden administration's favorite TV show, Morning Joe, this is the new line, is that you are the friend of Putin and an enemy of democracy, an enemy of freedom across the globe.
Let's take a listen.
What do you have Republican spiriting of Vladimir Putin. You have the Republican nominee, likely nominee, saying yes, Putin invade Europe, Russia invade Europe. You have all of these things happening at the same time, and it's it's not an accident. And and I've got to say even I am shocked that that Republicans on the Hill haven't stood up to Donald Trump saying that that Russia should invade NATO allies.
But they haven't, which means again, this is a moment in time everybody has to stop and recognize that not only is American democracy on the line, but freedom across the globe on the line. Donald Trump is siding with she, Donald Trump is siding with Putin. Donald Trump is siding with Kim Jong un. These are the people that he wants to make alliances with, and he wants to turn his back on a free Europe.
Turning our back on a free Europe enemy. I need to brain lobotomy after listening to something like that. But the crazy thing is is that this is not just you know, it's one thing if it's on Morning Joe, this is what Biden himself is saying. He's like, you are an enemy of freedom across the globe. You are a Putin puppet if you refuse to pass this. It's basically a Biden had to say too whenever he urged the passers of this bill.
Very shortly after the morning Joe's segment, let's take a.
Listen by margin of seventy to twenty nine to move forward with the bipartisan National Security Bill. Now, now it moves to the House, and I urged Speaker Johnson to bring it to the floor immediately, immediately. There's no question that the Senate bill was put on the floor and the House representatives it would pass, It would pass, and
the Speaker knows that. So I called the Speaker to let the full House speak its mind and not allow a minority of most extreme voices in the House to block this bill even from being voted on, even from being voted on. This is a critical act for the House to move. It needs to move. The bill provides urgent funding for Ukraine. So we're going to keep defending itself against Putin's vicious vicious onslaught.
Putin's vicious vicious onslaught.
So this is what the line is now, crystal, And it does seem though that Jeffries, the House majority of House Minority leader is taking up these words.
Let's put this up there on the screen.
Jeffries, Basically, the only thing they have at their disposal is the ability to try and hijack a tool called a discharge petition. A discharge petition effectively allows circumvention of the House Speaker and of the Rules Committee to bring a piece of legislation to the floor, most famously used in the case of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four.
I thought you're going to say legally blonde.
Oh sorry, I apologize, I'm not familiar. Actually, is that legally b one one? Are you sure?
I think you might be referring to legally blonde two, which has been panned by the critics.
I am a great fan of legally blonde.
One, but as we see here the House Minority Leader, the Democrats are trying and preparing to be able to use this tool.
However, Crystal, people I spoke to who are.
Very very anti Ukraine AID and who are working on Capitol Hill intimately involved in this, they're not worried about the discharged petition.
So I'm not sure what you think.
I'm a little worried.
It's possible.
I'm not saying they would definitely not use everything at their disposal to bring it about. It's just that procedurally, at a minimum, this takes forty two days to be able to get it there, and it would require a very decent amount of Republicans to buck the House Speaker and to openly put themselves up for target by the Republican base, by Donald Trump and others who are urging not to pass this bill.
So I'm curious what you think as well.
I mean, I hope that analysis is correct. I'm really betting on Washington dysfunction on this one. I'm delighted that they scuttled the border plus Ukraine plus Israel version of this bill, and I am hoping that this one also fails. But this is some very potent kool aid that they are selling here in this town. I mean, think about the fact that in the Senate you had at least
Chris van Holland and Elizabeth Warren. They have openly acknowledged Israel's committing war crimes, and yet they still voted for billions more to Israel because of Ukraine, because they feel so strongly about the fate of democracy around the world that you have to, you know, rush more money into what is now a failed and losing cause and is subjecting not us but the Ukrainian people to you know, endless misery with no end in sight, that's supposedly what
this money is supposed to go to is you know, the fate of democracy around the world, when in reality, the fact that we have pursued this course in Ukraine has been an utter disaster for the Ukrainian people first and foremost. So that is why, because there is such a commitment to this issue that almost defies any sort
of logic. It really is almost like a religious devotion at this point that I can't help but be concerned that they are going to find some way through, because you know, when it's healthcare money, or money to feed kids or like you know, homeless people or whatever, then all the there's a million obstacles, we can never get it through, et cetera. But it seems like when it's money for war, somehow they always freaking find a way.
On the discharge petition piece, the way that this works you have to get a majority of the House to sign on to the discharge petition, so you would need basically all of the Democrats. I do think there are some Democrats who would not sign on, you know, squad members and other lefty type Democrats who wouldn't sign on because of Israel. And then but you know, then you have to cobble together some Republicans. Are there some Republicans that are committed enough to Ukraine to buck whatever Donald
Trump wants and sign on to this. I'm not confident that there aren't the other thing that I was reading about, and I don't really understand this, guys, but allegedly there is some other discharge petition that got started on some other issue that already has two hundred and thirty six signatures that they could use as a starting point and then just have to add to that to get to
a majority. And then they could swap out what it was originally supposed to be for and make it about this, which puts them a a lot closer to accomplishing their goal than they would be if they have to start from scratch. Again, the legislative mechanics are not my specialty. This is just what I read from some political analysts that said that this option was on.
The table as well.
Like I said, Zager, That's why I can't really rest easy believing that this is completely dead on arrival, because they always seem to find a way to fund these frickin' wars.
When it comes down to it.
I will not rest easy up, and we need several more weeks before I be officially I think this thing would be dead. Let's put this up there on the screen, just to give an idea though of why things are pretty tied up right now. So this is from Jake Sherman over at punch Bowl. They say Johnson has effectively said that bill is dead. The House is in this week, but it is out next and then has three days in session to deal with government funding which comes due
on March first. Meanwhile, most Republicans are opposed to Ukraine funding. They are stuck on attaching HR two, which does not have a prayer of passing HR two. By the way, as a border legislation, discharge petition is also an option. But there are a lot of hurdles there, some that Dems will dat because of Israel funding, so some ours will be afraid to put their neck that is on the line. So I think that's a pretty good analysis. As you said, I wouldn't put a past them. I don't put anything.
Past these people.
Look, yeah, Johnson's also not really reliable here.
The problem with Johnson is not even his reliability, Crystal, It's that he is weak and he does not have a total control of the caucus. A lot of Republicans right now are very pissed off at him because for allowing the expulsion of George Santos, the original failure of the Majorcist vote, the fact that the Israel.
Bill was put up and then it was failed.
Then he then gabbled in a failing vote before the
House of Representatives. I know this all sounds like inside baseball, guys, but the reason it matters is because when you're weak and you don't have institutional control, and you lose control of the floor and all that, it opens the door for exact you said, chaos loves a vacuum, and with that vacuum, the Democrats or pro Ukraine Republicans or Russian space laser psyops and all of that could create a situation where they would pass something like this.
Let's also not forget about the influence of the Israel lobby here in this time. I mean, that's why the vote was so overwhelming in the Senate. I saw, you know, the people who were in favor of this bill were urging a pack and these other associated groups to apply as much pressure as possible to try to get this bill through one way or another. And so yeah, I think,
you know, I'm hoping it's dead. The fact that people who want it to fail aren't nervous about its prospects and think that it is in fact dead, that's a good sign. But you have a lot of very powerful constituencies and very powerful ideologies that exist in this town which are used to getting their way, that want to see this aid go through. And so you know, I don't think that we can completely count it out at this point because of that, you know, array of powerful
interests and interest with a lot of money too. I mean, don't forget that APAC funds huge amounts into these congressional campaigns, and you know a lot of these members are not going to want to get crosswise of a pack in the upcoming election season racing.
It's all about the Benjamin's Yes, I am.
You can say whatever the hell you want to say about that, but that's just reality in this town.
Let's move on to RFK guys.
So, as we have alluded to, this is going to be the last segment that we're going to be doing on our RFK focus group. The full focus group is going to post for our premium subscribers to get access to that.
A more edited version will eventually.
Post on all of our public platforms, but if you want to be able to watch it to support future work like this, which is very very expensive in order to put on Breakingpoints dot Com to be able to help us out. Let's get to the actual focus group itself, though, which is we learn a little bit about the people who participated, whether they had voted in the past for Trump, for Biden, or for third party, and who they might support in the future if RFK is not able to get on the ballot.
Let's take a listen.
Let's think back to how you voted last time. So what a show of hands if you voted for Biden last time? And then show of hands if you vote for Trump last time? Third party? Okay, so shadowing, Why why not Biden this time?
His health?
His age, I mean, he's he's I don't think he's capable to do another four years?
Maybe a year, but not four.
Why wouldn't I vote for him this time? I didn't want to vote for him the last time, so I didn't really I didn't really stand behind what he was talking about. I was more Trump, and like I said, I was persuaded to vote for Biden because he was Democratic.
I just really didn't.
I didn't like how to the kind.
Ofy got crippled a little bit.
To me, it's like they brought us up to bring us back down, and I just don't like it. Like everything has got risen up, like the way where you stay, everything you eat, the things you buy is just high. And it just doesn't make any sense now, you know.
For me, Although I think he's very knowledgeable in politics from his past history, I just think, at this point, close to eighty, I have older parents and we deal with caregiving and different things and not saying that they aren't all there physically and mentally. But I'm more concerned about it taking his health, taking a toll, it taking a toll on him and not being able to make the best decisions that a younger candidate could.
Is it the Democrats are going off of or is it Biden?
It's Biden? For me, it's Biden.
Trump voters tell me why not Trump this time?
Even from Jay one, I thought Trump would be good for policy and getting things done. That's why I voted for him initially, and so I think he did that. But I'm Also with that came the personality. You know, he's known to be abrasive with all the lawsuits, with all this stuff, there's so much drama going on, So
to me, it's a distraction. And even though I know he's an effective person and getting stuff done in the leadership, and but he just alienates people on the road, and he can create the divisiveness that we have in this country now.
There's a lot of drama, and we don't we don't need the drama. I just feel like, between Kennedy and Trump, I'd actually be okay with either, but I would give Kennedy my vote because we really need to be for the people, and I don't think Trump was as informed as he needed to be.
How likely would you be to change your vote from RFK to somebody else if people were saying to you, look, only one can win, and a vote for RFK Junior or a vote for any other third party candidate is, as they say sometimes say, don't waste a wasted vote.
I really don't know how to answer that, because, like I said, whether it be Trump or Kennedy, I would be happier than it's anybody but Biden.
I'm going to stay safe until the campaigns continue, the conversations continue, just to learn more about mister Kennedy and see how the rest of the candidates are behavior.
And I'm going to do a lot more research and go from there.
I can never say never.
I'm a man of principal and so I'm firmly going for him right now. But you put a new dynamic in there saying, you know what, if it's going to be Biden, So that doesn't that complicates things for me?
You your film ten movie?
Maybe?
No, No, I mean, if you're saying it's going to be either one or the two, it's either Trump or RFK Junior, or it's going to be Biden. I'm going to do what I can so it's not Biden.
I'm still open to say the chances Biden still can redeem myself. You know, everybody's not perfect.
I think this is what every election gets boiled down to, and everyone turns it into this it has to be one or the other. I think that's the problem. I'm with the bearded guy.
I totally agree with him by interesting. But yeah, I mean a couple of things there. I love how all of them can see clearly they're like well, you know, with Trump, I thought X, Y, and Z, then this happened.
I don't see it all that clearly.
With Biden as well, she was like, well, I didn't particularly want to vote for him, and then I did, and I was pretty.
Disappointed with the results, so I'm not going to vote for him.
And same you know, with the the way they all feel about Kennedy is clearly a total rejection of the current status quo.
They're very uncomfortable with. That said, if I was watching I it was Biden was watching.
That clip, I would feel uncomfortable because, and this makes sense for a lot of people who are drifting away and they feel that Biden is infirmed, they can't vote for him.
For them, that's already a choice.
They're like, I'm not going to vote for Biden, So being forced back into voting for Biden is going to be difficult. Whereas Trump, I mean benefited from this when he was running against Hillary was he can capture the anti Hillary agenda. And don't get me wrong, Biden is definitely a beneficiary of this too. I just don't think it would manifest itself in the same way in an rfkjun.
Your focus group.
So just to recap very interesting the reasons that the previous Biden voters and the previous Trump voters moved off of those candidates. So it's, you know, I think, very consistent with what we see in the polling. Over whel With Biden, it's age, it's age. There's just like, I.
Don't even know if he can do another term.
And then you had the one lady also talking about and she talked in one of the previous segments we showed us well about inflation and economics and how she just feels like the economy has been really poor under Joe Biden. With Trump, it's the personality, the lawsuits, and the drama. I mean, that's what those two both talked about. Even though the woman in particular, I mean the one who said that listen, I just would be happy with anyone of them, and Biden, I'd be okay if Trump
got back in there. I would wager that she at the end of the day, if it is coming down to Trump and Biden, is going to vote for Trump because she feels comfortable with him. But what she said is also you know, the drama, the divisiveness, and she felt like he wasn't as well informed as she wanted to see. And again, I mean, these are things the personality, the lawsuits, the drama that you see very much when it comes to reluctance to support Trump again is the
sense that it's just like chaos. He's divisive, he's tearing the country apart, and those are some of his bigus liabilities with regards to when they're actually pressed on. Okay, if it really is coming down to the wire and it's not looking like it's going to be RFK, it's looking very much like it's going to be Trump or Biden, what.
Are you going to do?
Then you basically only had one guy who said, don't care, it's still with RFK Junior. Everyone else was like, mmm, that gets complicated for me.
Mmmmm anyone but Biden.
So if my vote, I can't, you know, cast a vote that I think is going to help Biden get back in there by taking it away from Trump, et cetera.
And this is why you frequently, i mean basically routinely in American politics see that third party candidates pull better than they end up performing on election day because a lot of people do that calculus at the end of the day, and it's logical it's rational that because our system is so rigged against anyone outside of the major two parties, that they don't want.
To feel like they're a spoiler.
They don't want to feel they're qute unquote, throwing their vote away, and so when push comes to shove, they do pick whoever they see as a lesser of two evils. That's what Joe Biden campaign is really counting on, you know, That is what they're counting on, is that when it comes down.
To it, the people who are with him before, who you.
Know, absolutely hate Donald Trump for whatever reason, are going to realize that they have no other option than these two individuals, and so they got to suck it up once again and vote for Joe Biden. But Sager, I do agree with you that I think that is I think it will work to a certain extent.
I think that's true.
A good number of the people who are typical Democratic voters who are expressing a lot of disgust right now over Israel or his age, or a variety or the economy or variety of other issues. I do think at the end of the day, many of them will come home. But he needs all of them to come home and They've used this argument a lot of times, and it is a different deal now where we've had four years of Trump and I thought it was horrible, but we did all survive to the end of it. The world
didn't come to an end. So I'm not sure that it has the terrifying factor that it did. You know, once did and even in twenty sixteen, obviously it wasn't enough for it to work out, but also in twenty twenty, you know, memories fade very quickly. At that moment, we had the clear and present example of like, this is what it's like right now to be under a Donald Trump presidency, and people were so discussed, they were just
ready to move on. I think a lot of the visceral nature of that angst has faded over time, and Trump really benefits from that at this point.
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think Trump I could say, I could call it both ways. If we if we got to a point where Trump and the chaos, what do you hear from all these people like I can't handle this man, it's just difficult.
Yeah, it doesn't seem all this.
What if we're in the middle of a trial in a Supreme court, you know, high stakes gamble between the two about whether he's even going to be in prison or not, and let alone a convicted criminal.
I could see it. I could definitely see a bunch of these people being like.
All right, well, you know, I'm either going to sit it out or I'm going to vote for Biden or vote for RFK vice versa two whenever. Who knows what the situation is going to look like at the time. But it is clear though that it's real that the support for RFK. You know, I wouldn't say it's as sticky as you would want for a too party camp in a two party system obviously, but it's not bad either.
You know, it's as good as it's got been for a long time.
Yeah, I mean that is the there are the biggest challenge for him, and we're going to talk about this a little bit more in this you know, campaign drama piece that media put out. But the biggest thing for him is ballot access. And it's not fair because the system has been completely rigged. He's already facing lawsuits from the DNC. I guarantee you they're going to go after
him every single state. I mean, they're just going to make it as difficult as possible for his name to even appear on the ballot.
So that's number one.
Number two is if you're going to defeat this trend of you know, pulling decently as just an alternative because people are so disgusted with these two, but them actually coming to the polls on election day and sticking with that commitment and not being scared into Ah. But at the end of the day, I just got to it's only going to be Biden or Trump, so I gotta go with one of the two of them.
You are going to have to give people more of an.
Affirmative like, no, I'm not just against these two actively for this guy for whatever the set of reasons is. And I think he has some of those diehard supporters, but not nearly enough certainly to win or even to really impact the outcome of the election, especially as it appears right now he's drawing pretty evenly from both candidates.
So to me, those are kind of the two main challenges that he has coming upcoming, and really the ballot access one just looms so large in terms of what he'll be able to accressication.
If the man can get on the ballot, then this is a whole different ballgame. But if he's not, and this is where, yeah, we wanted to discuss this for all of you.
Let's put this up there on the screen.
There was a bizarre report that came out from media where they are claiming that there's been a mass exodus of RFK junior campaign staffers. Basically they're like, oh, it's a campaign in disarray, arranging amateurs, leadership and all of that.
I will say I had a couple of red flags that came to me immediately afterwards, which is, first of all, like this is not a traditional political outlet that breaks like real scoops and or stories that said they did correctly report media I back in the day that RFK was going to do third party, So possibly there's some there. They claim that there have been an exodus, but you know, when you look at it, they say it's twelve field staff and two mean staff who are alleging chaos on
the ballot access initiative and quote unquote lavish spending. Most of the spending, though, has been concentrated at relatively lower level in terms of consulting.
But maybe the one part.
That we could take away from this is that people who were in the campaign, are coming away and are leaking at least to this report, and they're like, the ballot access is a problem.
Now.
I went, like I said, on the Kennedy website, they have an entire ballot access page where they have it. And one thing that was definitely a red flag for me, for example, we both live in the state of Virginia, is they're like, well, it's forthcoming details and I was like, well, you guys need to get on this. You know, it's like, shouldn't be forthcoming. I even said previously, I'm like, hey,
if you're involved, reach out to me. I actually walked past some rfkolunteers where I live and I was like, hey, is this for ballot access and they're like, no, no, no, that's that's later. They're like thanks for your interest, though, but I was like, well, what are you doing here, Like what exactly is this? I'm like, you guys need to hit you know, hit the pavement. But first, yeah, exactly.
It's like, look, bumper stickers are great, but you know that's not the first thing that we really need to get to.
So that was my look. If there's any grain in this of truth or any of that he's still only on the ballot in one state. He's got to get on the ballot in forty nine more states. Yeah, it's a big, big lift.
It is a It is a massive, massive lift. It will require an absolutely exceptional organization. It will require a massive amount of money not only to run the actual you know, ballot access campaign, but also to fund the lawsuits that have already started coming your way. And so, like you, Sager, you know, this is the typical like initial hatchet job that comes out. They do the same thing with Marianne. You see this all the time where it's all the staff is in chaos and we got
this leak, and that leak from whatever disgruntles staff. For listen, if you're running a significant organization, someone is going to be bitchy and disgruntled. That's just like the reality, and they're going to be out for blood and you know, willing to leak whatever to some friendly and get their story out there. Throw whoever they're pissed off at under the bus. This is typical campaign stuff. So I always when you see these types of reports, you should take
it with a lot of grains of salt. So that's my starting point that being said, they do have these two letters that they got from staffers of you know, that they sent to the campaign of why they were leaving. And the line that really sticks out above all others is this one that says, quote it bothers me every day that so many in the campaign can't see the iceberg that is dead ahead called ballot access. If that's true,
that is a real problem. And again it's not fair, right, It's not fair that so much of the campaign has to be focused around that. It is anti democratic the way that our system has been set up and rigged by the two major parties, But it is the reality of the system that they are going to have to be able to navigate. This staffer who left goes on to say, sure, you're hiring national folks for these efforts, but what about the field where the vast, vast majority
of the action happens. The logistics for these operations are already complicated, made even more ownerus and costly by the vault process. I don't know what that is, and very in every state, and somehow you expect these things can be worked out by mostly volunteers who will be probably overwhelmed with just the signature gathering.
Good luck with that.
So what this staffer at least is alleging in their exit letter was is that, you know, this is being run by a largely volunteer staff, They're going to be overwhelmed. It's insufficiently capitalized. The campaign doesn't have their eye on the ball with regards to this. And if that's true, that is a major major issue. And I do think that the large sums being spent, you know, going to consultants,
that is a problem too. I will say again, you know, it's so hard when you're not one of like with the establishment ever of either party, because people.
Don't want to work for you.
You know, you know, if you are an experienced political operative and you go to work for you know, Dean Phillips or Marion or RFK Junior or whoever who is outside of Joe Biden or Donald Trump, you know you will never work and party politics again.
You're done pint.
So in terms of getting you know, seasoned professional operatives, you basically don't have any available. I mean they're you know, the list is practically zero of actual season campaign professionals that you can get. So who do you turn to? You got to go to people you know, maybe people
from the business world, people you trust. You know, that's another big thing is Yeah, confidence is important, but also in this game, it's really important you have people around you that you actually trust, and so you can end up with some people who are less experienced a little more amateurish with regard to actual campaign operation. But that's basically all that's available to you.
So this is also.
Really not fair, and that's how you can also end up getting really scammed by consultants who overcharge you, who are just looking for a quick buck, who don't really care about what the future is going to hold for them. They're just, you know, got to get that cash now and worry about that later. That's how you can end
up with, you know, staff upset over. One of the things they talk about here is someone who has brought in that they felt like didn't have the you know, adequate experience for the job that she was put into. But I actually really sympathize on all of those counts because the world of professional operatives with campaign experience is effectively completely closed off to you.
Yeah, very well said from somebody who has a lot more knowledge on this stuff than me. Will continue to track it just remains. Though the ballot access is a problem. Some of his people will, it seems, go elsewhere if they have to, so begin not giving them the option to do so seems to be pretty parable.
Yeah, having your name on the ballot is mission critical.
Here you go. Joining us now is Ryan Gerdsky.
He's the author of the National Populist Newsletter, of which we have a link down in the description and encourage everybody subscribe.
Thank you for joining us, sir, Thanks for having me so Ryan.
The reason we booked you is because you always have unvarnished analysis, especially in terms of what Republicans are doing wrong and how they are winning votes. So what you wrote immediately after the results of Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, and New York elections was this is why are we performing so badly. We lost high propensity, mostly college educated white voters. We gained lots of low propensity voters who don't show up.
The weirdness around conservative culture, Hail Swift's a CIA Plan election was stolen, etc. Is only making these people run away more. It is hurting up and down the ballot almost everywhere we go. And the fact that these low propensity voters won't vote early is because they believe in nonsensical conspiracies about voting machines.
People need to be aware.
So Ryan, not only are you descriptively writing about the problem, but you also have.
Some solutions and things in order to be able to move past this.
So just give us your general reaction to those results in New York, building on top of what I just read there.
So in New York, Mazi fill ups.
The Republican.
NASA County gop IS, which is NASA Keunny's in the third congressional district along the Queens is one of the most efficient and actually powerful local Republican parties in the country. They've done an amazing job winning Candida, winning elections for candidates up and down the ballot. The thing is is that to me, they got very cute with how they
picked their endorsement process. They picked a woman, black Jewish IDF, former veteran, a mother of seven immigrant I mean they went through the checkboxes, but she had She was a registered Democrat who had close to no conservative beliefs I mean on immigration, on abortion, I mean, on any close to anything. I didn't hear her say any Republican or conservative speaking talking points, and she ran against a very long vettle. Tom Swazi has been in an elected office
since nineteen ninety four. He's been here for a very very very long time. These short The reason that she overperformed Trump and overperformed even George Santos in twenty twenty, who ran against Swaw twenty was because Nassau County and that area of Queens is moving to the right. Nonetheless, and yet still she lost and she should and a better Republican would have been able to win. And it's not one specific thing. I mean, Mazi's did not campaign.
She wouldn't campaign on Saturday, she wouldn't campaign in the evenings. She was multiple campaign events she didn't even show up to. Altogether, she was a bad candidate. But there is something larger going on. In Oklahoma, we had a special extp state Senate in a Republican plus twenty six seat that they won by five. In Pennsylvania there was a Democrat plus tennesseeat that we lost by like fifty. There is a problem right now, and the problem specifically is there were
a lot of Republicans used to dominate special elections. We would absolutely dominate it just ten years ago, but we traded a hyperpensity college educated voters for a lot of non college educated voters of many different political persuasions who do not vote in most elections.
They just don't.
And the persuadable independent voter are looking at Republicans a lot and agreeing with them on immigration, on education, We're winning them on on a million different issues. We are winning them on. But yet they are looking at them and saying they're weird. Something is really really weird about them. They don't want to be around, and that is the vibe check is a very big problem.
Let's talk a little bit more about that.
This poll just came out about the alleged Taylor Swift, Nato, Soros, Pfizer si up.
Let's put this up on the screen.
So you've got eighteen percent of the public believes in this covert government effort for Taylor Swift to help Joe Biden win the presidential election. Seventy three percent say this is insane and it does not exist. Nine percent say they don't know. But also critically, Ryan, there was a large proportion of the public that knew about this insane conspiracy that obviously is overwhelmingly rejected by the public, but is believed by a significant proportion of the Republican base.
So I think there's a lot too your instinct that just like normies who may you know, agree with Republicans on some issue and be open especially to like a more moderate Republican in Long Island or whatever, like, these people are just going off the deep end like this tailor swift conspiracy, you know, nonsense, and a whole host of other down the rabbit hole online conspiracy theories are just too much for me to swallow and associate with.
Look, because the media, the establishment media, has failed so spectacularly at doing their job and presenting honest facts. There is a business model, a very substantial business model where if you can get ten thousand people or fifteen thousand people who like you, and we'll give you three dollars a month and support you, you have a very serious business.
So you have insert you know, ex Republican conservative influencer name sitting there impeddling nonsense to like It's as if it's like pure heroine to their loyal people who believe they are the only arbiters of the truth, and they have to sell the most pure I mean, it has to go. Ten you got to go. You got to push that envelope every single time, because if you don't, somebody else will. That is very, very, very damaging, especially when so many of those thoughts are just free of facts.
A lot of them are peddling, influenced to other campaigns in order to get more access to other people in hopes of getting you know, invited to the White House Christmas Party. It is an extremely toxic trait in our culture right now. It is especially toxic right now in Republican politics. And I don't know, I mean, it is the great irony of the Donald Trump campaign is it has never been more establishment. Within the inner circles of the Donald Trump campaign, it is the most professional has
ever been. It is most establishment Republican has ever been. And the preferee, the people who hang out of my relat go to you know, get one picture with him, have never been crazier. And it is just the absolute, true, stranged dichotomy of Republican politics right now.
That is such a good point, you know, Ryan, And I also saw you tweeting a lot about mail in voting and about early voting. If you could expand on that, I know there's a big war in the Republican party about that. But something that you have to acknowledge is the strength of a lot of mail in voters as long as it is allowed for Democrats. What are some of the thoughts on that, and then how Republicans should think about it as well.
I mean Republicans used to dominate early voting because early voting was primarily the method that elderly people voted, in people seventy five and older who couldn't make it to the polls, and that obviously changed really during COVID. But there is no excuse why Republicans are losing the early in person ballot voting. I mean people can go to the polls for two weeks, three weeks whatever ahead of
time and actually vote in person. I understand fears of early voting, and obviously, in the recent case in Connecticut, it was shown that early voting did result in some temperate out and some changing of the ballots or something like that. But there is I understand the fear, but
there is no fear of in person early voting. If you are a two of four voter, that means you voted in two of the last four elections or one of the last four elections, there is a very high chance that you're not going to wake up on a Tuesday for a special election and say I got to get to vote someone like me.
They will always I will always vote.
I vote in every single I've never missed an election in my life. But that's the people that Republicans need to get out and go vote early. Are those one of four, of those two of fours, those people without the high perpensitive voting. And the way it breaks down in America is the people who will vote the most often are college educated whites who are increasingly liberal. Blacks are second, non college educated whites or third. Latinos and
Asians are fourth and fifth. Well, who are Republicans getting with Asians and Latinos and white non college educated voters while losing college educated voters. So we are trading in hyperpensity voters for lower pensity voters. That is problematic and there is no and as long as this perpetual fear that every election is stolen's going around, we're not going to move the needle with a huge mass of people. There's millions and millions of people in that latter pool
Republicans gain. You just got to get them to show up, Yes.
So famously back in twenty sixteen, Chuck Schumer said, for every blue collar Democrat we lose in western PA, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, And you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin. Obviously didn't work out for Democrats in twenty sixteen, but it sounds like what you're arguing is basically like he
was right. Over time, that is what happened. And you know, historically Republicans always had the turnout advantage because they tended to do better among wealthier, college educated people, and those were the people who are the more reliable voters. But that dynamic has now completely flipped, right.
I mean, that's true, and that's why these special elections. I mean in twenty twenty three so far and all the special elections, and I think twenty twenty two that the average number of vote is D plus six from where it was in twenty twenty. The electorate is six more present Democrat than it was in twenty twenty. And that is not because everyone who was Republican changed their minds. It's because who was showing up to actually go vote
in these elections in twenty twenty two. We Republicans in states like New York, in states like Florida where the issues were crime in COVID and the Republican independent vote.
Was very, very strong.
They had a very they had a very very uh you know, great performance in other places around the country when it was about either Donald Trump or abortion and the independent vote was weak, it had this had a negative impact. We've lost a lot of these races. But more importantly is the number of Republicans turning out the vote wasn't high enough because we were losing those high propensity, college educated people. That is a long term problem, but it's not it's not a problem that can't be fixed.
It's not like, you know, Lee Zelden didn't get forty seven percent or forty six zo point five percent in New York State, or you know, Governor Ron de Standers didn't get fifty nine percent in Florida. There are places where people have made that impact on that in road.
It's just the issues that they talk about, it's the vibe that they sit there and bring about, and it's the fact that they are, you know, really hitting voters where they're at rather than trying to take them on this you know, Merry go around into crazy Land, and I think that that really is. I mean, but there is a big difference between the Pennsylvania governor's election and the New York governor's election. New York had a closer election,
you know, than Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was to the left of not only I think not only just New York, but of California. And it wasn't because the electorate change. It's because the candidate's change. And that really does mean something.
I think that matters more at the state level than it does for federal elections, which I think increasingly are more subject just to national trends than candidate quality is. I mean, that's how you get like an Andy Basheer that can win in Kentucky. That so you can get such an outsize result in a place like Pennsylvania or New York who's unique and well known in the state that can outperform in a governor's race. I think it is a little different at the federal level. But your
points are all well taken. How do you think that it translates for twenty twenty four, because you know, I mean, this is basically the Democratic cope at this point is like, Yeah, the polls look really bad for Joe Biden and eighty six percent of the country thinks he's too old and his.
Approval ratings are trashed.
How in these special elections we are consistently outperforming because people are just so disgusted with whatever it is that the Republicans are trying to sell them. Do you think that that logic works out for twenty twenty four or the dynamics of a special election different enough from a national presidential general election that the trend doesn't really hold up.
I think they differ.
I mean there is they definitely differ spostantially.
There's big questions.
I mean, minority turnout has been down in almost every one of these special elections. There is no indication of whether or not minority turnout, especially black turnout, will be where it was in twenty twenty. If it reflects twenty sixteen numbers, which was blacks for twelve percent of the national elector rather than thirteen percent, that one percent dip is enough to swing the entire country towards Donald Trump.
The other question.
Is is that does the white college education The white colleges vote will not mean enough if the millions upon millions of non college educated voters, both Hispanic, Asian and white come out in droves like they did for Trump only in twenty sixteen, but in twenty twenty. I mean, Trump a very high turn among those groups in twenty twenty. It just wasn't enough because he was losing independence and he was losing enough of non college educated voters to
sit there and matter. But nonetheless it does. It's not I don't think. I don't think special elections reflect the presidential election, but they do reflect a changing issue where we will have issues in mid terms going forwards. We will have issues and specials going forwards. That is a serious series, long term problem that needs to be solved, and I don't think it's reflected with twenty twenty four yet.
Really, well said Ryan, As we said, he's got the National Populous newsletter. Link is down in the description. Go subscribe to it and help him out. Thanks for joining us, man.
Thanks Ryan, good to see you.
Ye all right, we could not resist covering some of the continued fallout over John Stewart's return on Monday Night in what was very solid performance, but ultimately this hilarious thing about the jokes that John Stewart made is that all of it is really widely accepted by the marriag. I mean, it's obviously it is not controversial to say that Joe Biden is old and that people are concerned
about it. And yet you know, liberals are acting like the sky is falling and Joe and John Stewart is some like, you know, absolute threat to democracy on the level of Vladimir Putin now at this point. So first I have to turn to our friends over at the View for their trenchant analysis of John Stewart in the threat that he represents the country. Let's take a listen to what they had to say.
You have, on the one hand, you've got a Guya Biden, how old, the eighty one eighty one and so his stammers. He's had a stammer all his life. I think that that's part of the reason he sometimes looks a little doddering. He's trying to get the words out. The guy has accomplished a lot, a lot. I don't want to repeat all the things he's done for Americans already. On the other hand, you basically have had a seventy seven year old criminal who only cares about who only cares about getting out of jat.
A difference between age and vitality. There's a difference between age and really being up on things and having that quickness of wit that Joy has.
Let me just tell you.
That Martha Stewart's eighty two. She's still cooking in front of people.
She's growing Kenny Little. She's so exactly.
Robert de Niro and Al Pacino are getting it in. They've got babies in their eighties. Jane n eighty six, Representative Mexine Waters eighty five, Bernie Sanders eighty two, Nancy Pelosi eighty three.
I don't know.
They look like they know what they're doing.
They have the wisdom, they.
Have the history. The problem with this country is that we don't value people with their wisdom. We don't value seniors, we don't value up there.
Okay, I'm sick of this age.
As I don't have a problem with Biden.
I voted for Biden.
I'm in anyone but Trump, but I was voting for Biden anyway. But I also am honest about the gaps I see people concerned with which I think you can have both things right now, and I think that it's voters are concerned, and by telling them they shouldn't be, or that they're following a Republican narrative by listening to it, you're literally saying, like, close your eyes to what you're seeing,
or you're making them feel bad for raising something. And as John Stewart said in There, replace age with Vitality, he showed stammering in different points with each candidate and said, the only record they're breaking is the oldest one, is the record.
They set four years ago.
So it is a fair concern to say this, we ask people to keep their eyes open on January sixth, I don't think it's fair to tell them to close their eyes to what they're seeing.
Okay, then don't close your eyes to the tape. The the rest of the tape that John Stewart showed, and.
Then they go on to show the parts where he's showing Trump's forgetfullness.
That's better. And I mean, I just want.
To know what is the market for this, like for this absolute delusional view. Joy's saying, Oh, it's his stammer. He stammered, all is lighter. That's why he looks Are you kidding me? Eighty six percent of Americans say this
man is tool. A majority of Democrats say, this man is too old, and you're acting like John Stewart is some like traitor to the cause because he acknowledged what is clearly apparent, and you know what he did go on to say, like, you know, oh, listen, it's a legitimate issue, especially because there is so much at stake with Trump on the ballot too, and his you know, potential criminal convictions and all of the indictments, et cetera.
He even said that thing. So the panic over this and the cope over it, and the complete like other worldly bubble that they insist on inhabiting is just pretty incredible.
I remember the two of us getting attacked for this back in twenty nineteen whenever we would go after Biden there. This is when the stammer fakery began, because there was this whole plantic article.
It was like, who you go to stutter?
I'm like, yeah, so he has a stutter that miraculously had as a child, went away for his entire professional life, and then suddenly reappeared whenever he was old or he's just really freaking old, you know, and then to use that as a defense about why we're not supposed to attack him ridiculous. One of my friends who actually has a stutter and now has spent a lot of time in speech therapy, he put out a whole threat on this. He's like, this is deeply insulting to those of us
who actually have stutters. It is debilitary, and it could be really annoying. All these things that we've had to deal with for life. But Biden clearly is not suffering because of his stutter, Like, this is not something that is uh, this is not a result of the condition itself. It is driven entirely by age, and that is obvious to.
Anyone with the brain.
Realistically, what this is is that it's just about political correctness. It's about creating and opening the space such that we are not allowed to discuss this at all, even in the context of humor. But that's why Stuart's frankly anodyne observation that all of us see is funny, because we know that he's one of the only people who can say it in that type of space, which is then what invites the crackdown the criticism. I mean, Christal, you found this, but here we've got freaking Mary Trump.
Who is the resistance what is a niece? Is that who she is?
Niece of Donald Trump? She wrote a book, you know all this, why Trump is a threat and all of that. I'm big NBC fan favorite. I'm sure the boom er grandma's out there.
I'll know who she is.
But now she's saying, you know that mayor that Donald Trump is no sorry, that John Stuart is responsible, it seems for Trump for Trump selection.
Yeah, this is incredible. Put this up on the screen. So she has a substack apparently, and wrote a whole piece about how John Stuart is a potential disaster for democracy. I did read this piece, guys, I couldn't resist, and.
I'll share with you a little excerpt here.
She says, not only is Stuart's both sides are the same, rhetoric not funny. It's a potential disaster for democracy. Stuart helped wipe out the motivation generated by Obama's two thousand and eight message of hope and change, motivation that led to record turnout in two thousand and eight, the damage done by his rally to Restore Sanity, a DC rally joke which inspired an entire generation to shrug off politics and ignore the dangers The right wing cannot be overstated.
It was no small part responsible for helping Donald come to power. This rally we're looking at, is it twenty ten or twenty.
Eleven, October of twenty ten. I tire, by the.
Way, October of two thousand, a rally that he did in October of twenty ten, is apparently in no small part responsible for helping Donald Trump come to power, and he now represents a potential disaster for democracy because he dared to say what is plainly obvious to anyone with a functioning brain. Eighty six percent of Americans looking at this man and saying, you know what, I'm not sure about another four years, and you know what it.
Is, really soccer.
It is this cult like denial of reality that is mirrored on the right. I mean, they are like two sides of the same coin at this point. It's like anything I have to say, any inconvenient fact or reality that I have to deny in order to avoid giving the other side some talking point, I am going to do it, and I'm going to attack anyone who doesn't follow the rules of the game of just complete denial of the obvious realities in front of our faith.
Yeah, I mean, it's totally nuts, and it's also just gets back to the idea that you're not allowed to criticize people within your own side, and I think it really is insulting to people. There are a lot of people who think that Biden is too old and are going to vote for him.
You know why, because I hate Trump. Now you can make fun of them.
We could certainly discuss it here if you want, but you cannot criticize that because people are informed enough to discuss it, to rationalize it in their head, and to make the choice that they feel best.
But here you can do advice versa.
Go, yeah, well, I was just Here's the other thing is you could have had an open democratic primary process so that people weren't having to go like, oh my god, is this man going to drop dead before we even
get to election day. If you thought Donald Trump, and you think Donald Trump is such a threat to democracy, and I personally do not want to see Donald Trump back in the White House, you could have opened up the process so people had other alternatives of candidates who aren't in their eighties, of candidates who are able to formulate a sentence, of candidates who don't routinely tell stories about foreign leaders who died twenty years ago. Okay, thirty
years ago, you could have done so. The people to blame the DNC and the Democratic Party establishment who decided they wanted to have an anointment of King Biden rather than actually give voters a choice so you had a better shot come November. Because the truth of the matter is, if you had a run on the mill Dean Phillips style generic Democrat, they would be in a much, much,
much better position to win come November. And that was another thing that stuck out in that RFK junior focus group is the people who had said we voted for Biden, We're not voting for him this time. They were asked, okay, is this about Bidener's about the Democratic Party?
No, no, no, it's about Biden. It's about Biden.
And so all of the celebrations around the special election results, like what just happened in New York three, where people are saying, ah, good, thank goodness, I think we're going to be fine, et cetera.
That was for like a generic Democrat.
It may be a very different story when people are actually considering the person of Joe Biden, and it wasn't John Stewart who created these freaking dynamics, Mary Trump and Joy.
And whoever else at the view. It was the.
Democratic Party that forced the public into this horrific choice of you know, it's Joe Biden and that's the only option on the Democratic side.
Yeah.
No, it's totally crazy, especially with the way that you have the media that then enforces within this you see why they get away with it. And when the vast majority of these Democrats trust the media, I'm talking about the Democratic base, it's very, very difficult to have an open and a real conversation. It's genuinely a tragedy because if they do lose or if.
He dies, imagine, you know, what are we going to do? Are what is going to happen to this country?
And it's an entirely foreseeable, predictable event that only you know, after a special counsel writes the obvious, are we even allowed to And now they're trying to get the tapes of that conversation not to come out. Oh that's another thing, you know, we put we won't have time probably to comfort it's not a big enough story and of itself. But you know how Biden said, he said, how in the hair. Hell, dare he ask me when my son died?
Yeah?
Well, it turns out, for people familiar with the transcript, he never asked him.
The special counsel Biden brought up Bo's death and then then he couldn't remember, yeah, when he died. And I'm sorry, I don't want to sound mean.
I really don't, but you're gasslighting the whole country yea, and forcing us to walk the plank with you.
Dude, Yes, like that's the problem.
And by the way, for the ladies at the view, I mean, did you ever even inform your audience that Joe Biden had opponents? Did you have any of them on your show?
So, I mean you actually have direct culpability for.
The fact that this is the choice facing the American people at this point. So, you know, don't look at don't put the blame on John Stewart for pointing out the absolute obvious. You know, do a little self reflection about your role in enforcement for Joe Biden that led us to this place that the majority of Americans are disgusted to be in. Absolutely, We've got some breaking news this morning that we wanted to bring to Israeli special
forces are storming NASA Hospital in Communists in Gaza. This is the largest remaining functioning hospital in the entire Gaza strip. We can put some images that are coming out this morning. These are courtesy of Middle East Eye. You can see and by the way, this is very difficult to watch, but you can see some of the horror unfolding there in the hospital. I'm actually going to read the report
here from New York Times. They say Israel sent troops into Nasar Medical Complex on Thursday in what it described as a quote limited operation against Hamas, raising concerns about the fate of hundreds of patients and medical workers and the many thousands of displaced Palestinians who had sought shelter there from the war. The raid came two days after Israel's military ordered displaced people to evacuate the hospital. Put a pin in that piece because I've got some news
for you there as well. This is the largest hospital in southern Gaza and one of the last ones even functioning in the enclave. This, of course, as Israel has made targeting hospitals a real focus of this operation, something that was previously absolutely unheard of. Something was sparking earlier in this operation huge debates about whether this was justified. Of course, hospitals typically completely off limits in terms of the rules of war, not so in terms of Israeli
operations in Gaza. They go on to say this came after warnings by health officials that military operation there could be catastrophic for civilians. A Gazin health ministry spokesman said the Israeli military demolished the southern wall of the complex, begun storming and overrunning the ambulance center in an area where displaced people have been living intense He said Israeli forces were attacking the hospital's orthopedic department and had killed
one patient and injured several others. As far as the Israeli military, what they are saying is that these special forces soldiers are quote conducting a precise and limited operation inside NASA against Hamas, which it accused of hiding in the hospital among wounded civilians. Israel, which is said Hamas uses hospitals across Gaza as cover for military operations, that it had intelligence, including from released hostages, that Hamas had held captives at the hospital and that their bodies might
be there. Israeli authorities, though also lowering expectations that they will actually be able to find and recover any of the bodies of those hostages. So take that justification for what it's worth. Of course, you know this comes in a broader context sagre of You initially had people pushed out of northern Gaza into Conunis. Con Unis became a real center of the population. Conunis has been under massive attack and bombardment from the Israelis.
People have been pushed down to Rafa.
We are still waiting to see what happens there, but already bombardment of Rafa As started as well. So you had thousands of Palestinians who had sheltered in this hospital, in this medical complex, thinking apparently wrongly, that hospitals may be a safer location to shelter, and now even this hospital also being targeted. One more thing with regard to the initial order to evacuate, because this is absolutely horrifying. Put this report from the intercept up on the screen.
They did a good job on reporting this out. So the headline here is IDF sent in handcuffed prisoner to evacuate hospital, then killed him when he left. Basically the entirety of the story here is in the headline. They sent a Palestinian prisoner in in handcuffed I think basically zip tied handcuffs into this hospital to tell them that they had to leave.
Or they would all be killed.
And then on the way out, his mother, I believe, was there in the hospital begging him not to go back out, but he said, they threatened me if I don't leave the civilians here at this hospital hour at risk. He left and then the Israelis shot him and this was all documented by the intercept and by witnesses on the scene. So yet another scene of horror emerging out of the Gaza strip and hospital that had been serving as a sanctuary for many displaced Palestins.
Yeah, the big pivting is the Israelis are already downplaying, as you said, some of the initial claims about why they're going into the hospital, and they haven't been They didn't exactly have the best track record in terms of what happened earlier in Gaza City, So they're going to have to show results if they want to continue to justify this. As you saw from the footage as well, you know, it's pretty terrifying about what exactly that looks like.
And the question too, I believe you can correct me if I'm wrong, because it is the last remaining one.
The question is is that it is.
Going to be reprobably damaged that the can continue medical facility. This is the last bastion I guess of healthcare for doctors without borders for many others. It also is one of the easier ways when supplies were able to get through, to be able to get it to this hospital.
So if it does shut down, it would obviously.
Constitute complete, basically an absolute shutdown of all healthcare in the entire strip.
So very terrifying. Yeah, in terms of what's happening right now.
Absolutely, and by the way, I should say, the doctors and hospital administrators absolutely deny the claims there be made here by the Israelis being used as justification for the stormy of a hospital, which again, you know, I think the news media has almost become accustomed to hospitals being targeted in this conflict. But this is very much outside
of the norms of modern warfare. As I said previously, hospitals should be completely off limits and it is a war crime to target them except in the most exceptional of circumstances.
And since we.
Had sort of these, you know, debates early on, and there was this overwhelming propaganda campaign to justify some of the early hospital attacks. Some of the latter ones have gone barely without notice, not to mention the targeting of ambulances, the targeting of other healthcare clinics and facilities. And this comes of course as there's been a massive shortage of medical supplies as well, such that you've had children having to undergo amputations without anesthetic, women having to give birth
and suffer through cesareans without anesthetic. I did see some videos online this morning that, you know, I can't verify, but would comport with the reality of what's unfolding. Women who have literally just given birth half an hour before being forced to evacuate.
The hospital with their babies.
You can, I mean, I can't actually even imagine what that would be like. At the same time as we're watching that, there are other significant developments.
Let's put this up on the screen. Report from the Wall Street Journal.
The US is reportedly probing some Israeli strikes that have killed civilians in Gaza and the possible use of white phosphorus in Lebanon. The investigation could result in new conditions being set on the delivery of US weapons to Israel. I would not hold my breath on that second part. They even go on to say in this report that the probes are not indicative of a broader policy shift,
but Zager. They're basically looking at two separate incidents here, both of which we've reported on here on this show. One was that attack on the Jibalia refugee camp near Gaza City. It killed more than one hundred and twenty five people. According to US officials. Israel had said they were targeting a hamaska and in a tunnel under a high rise building.
It appears they used a.
Two thousand pound bomb in that strike on that refugee camp. That is why there were so many deaths and so many casualties. We're talking about huge numbers of women and children who were killed in that strike. The State Department reportedly probing basically to see whether or not this was
a war crime. The other incident that they are investigating is one that the Washington posted expensive reporting on and we talked about here as well, and that was the use of white phosphorus in Lebanon in ways that are also inconsistent with the laws of war again. I would not raise your expectations that this is going to result
in much, if anything. But you have a quote here from Sarah Jeger, former human rights advisor to the Pentagon's Joint chiefs of Staff, now serves as Washington director for Human Rights Watch. She called the continuing investigations a quote much needed step for the US, but also expressed, as she should, a lot of skepticism about the impact, saying,
quote will it lead to anything? That's where I'm less confident about how great this thing is to be effective, she said, very senior US officials will need to take the finding seriously and act on them. This kind of trust of policymakers to do the right thing has a history of not working out.
So well. Let's see.
And I believe it was Matt Miller's State Department spokes but it might have been Jake Sullivan or Matt Miller, I can't remember. I get all these schools confused, but basically sort of downplayed this probe and what it might also mean from the podium.
I have a quote here.
He says the process is not intended to function as rapid response. Rather, it is designed to systematically assess civilian harm incidents and develop appropriate policy responses to reduce the risk of such incidents occurring in the future. I mean, the big question is like, look, I mean at a certain point, I almost just find this annoying because we
reported on it months ago. Anybody with a brain can see that as obviously white phosphorus, not from the attack, but because we've been able to assess white phosphorus attacks previously in let's say Russia and in Syria with almost instantaneous results. But this has been I mean, how long has it been since White Foster attack. I remember covering.
It in the early early days. It's been several months.
So why is it that when Russia uses white phosphorus we can be like, ah, this is an obvious and clear use of white phosphorus munitions, where we don't even have technically like a ground ability or investigation or an ally there to be able to verify it. Same with the Syrians, like we can automatically say, oh, Asad used x exact chemical weapon, you know, whenever this happened. But here it's like five months later, whenever we're the ones
who sold it to them, then it just disappears. Yeah, just laughable, you know, It's one of those where don't lie to our faces. And because then also what if you do conclude What if you do conclude that it was used.
What are you going to do about it?
Are you going to follow official US law the loss has You're not allowed to do that.
You get cut off. You have a restriction.
That's what literally what the State Department of the Leahylan and other things that ascribe for US military. Now the president can waive that, but then it's like, well, what are we even doing here? If we all know that you're probably not going to do it. It could be maybe a pretext crystal for in the future. They can cut it off whenever they want. But I mean, six months from now, is it really going to matter?
I think it basically just gives you know, gouls like Matt Miller something to say at the POTO, Oh, we're investigating that, and then investigation can take months and months and months and never really come to a conclusion, or by the time there is.
A conclusion, it's way too late for it to even.
Matter, and they'll you know, tiss Israel does better in the future, but it'll have no real impact. Something that Ryan and others have been pressing the State Department people about has been you know, their go to justification for like the killing of Hint and the medics who were trying to rescue her, that six year old little girl that I did the monologue on. They'll you know, ask, okay, well what about this? What do you think about those?
Have you talked about the Israelis about this? Isn't this a war crime?
And oh, there's this.
We've talked to Israelis that an investigation is ongoing. They've done this for months at this point about a whole variety of war crimes that have been reported out and are clear as day, and they always just push you, oh, an investigation is ongoing, And so they start following up like, well, what about that investigation, what are the results?
What are we going to hear the results? And of course it's just a dodge.
It's just a way to get out of the moment and pretend like they care at all, when obviously, by their actions they clearly do not. The other thing that they've been getting pressed on quite a bit is, hey, your whole strategy of giving Israel total and complete support and then just occasionally leaking to the press that you're very concerned about this or that.
How is that going for you?
They had to admit the other day, in many instances it's not going that well. And I think a case in point in that is on something that is so basic. It's insane that the supposed superpower, the United States of America, cannot even accomplish pressing the Israelis to deliver a shipment of flower that we reportedly made clear to them was important to us. The Israelis are blocking that shipment because
they say it's going to UNRA. Of course, we help them with that sigh up by buying into the completely evidenced free claims that they leveled against UNRA, and we cut their funding. That led a whole cascade of countries
around the world to cut their funding. So in any case, Jake Sullivan getting pressed about how the Israelis are blocking this shipment of flower to Gaza at a time when a majority of Palestinians there are absolutely starving, and Sydney McCain, head of World Food Program, is saying kids are now literally starving to death.
Let's take a listen to how he responds, Well, it's why.
We're asking the question on the aid coming through and you're right that flower has not moved the way that we had expected it would move. And we expect that Israel will follow through on its commitment to get that flower into Gaza. But we are asking the question, how do you do something like RAFA and make sure all those innocent people not only are protected physically but can have access to aid. That is precisely the point that we are pressing on quite actively.
As we speak.
That flower has not moved the way that we expected it to move. I also love that phrasing, like the flowers the flower's fault, like the flowers just not getting
it together and moving where it's supposed to move. But think of how pathetic this is and how outrageous it is, even especially in the wake of the ICJ report that called on Israel to make sure they were improving the AID situation, that they were rushing more aid in and staid here they are completely blocking the shipment of flower that the US officials at least claimed to say that they care about getting in.
Yeah, it just reminds me of the Bill Clinton behind the scenes quote whenever Netannah who was badgering him, trying to get him on the phone, and he said, quote, who's the fucking superpower here?
This was behind the scenes.
So I've never expected to praise Bill Clinton, but I guess here I am.
Let's put this also up on the screen.
Please d three the BBC News tear sheet, because this is just one of those that we need to watch very closely. There was a major air strike yesterday in Lebanon, Lebanese government claiming ten people were killed. This was retaliatory after Lebanon or Hesbola launched attacks inside of Israel, which it killed at least some members of the IDF. Israel's military said it was hitting quote Hesbola infrastructure in response
to a deadly rocket attack on norther in Israel. Always just a reminder that as tensions and all these things ratchet up, this is probably the most strategically important place, you know, for where things could pop off. We've seen things like this happen in the past. But we also know that the Netanyahu government and the Defense Minister are chomping at the bit to be able to enter Lebanon or to mount some sort of attack, already calling it the Axis of Evil, saying we can do to Lebanon what we.
Did to Gaza. They should watch out.
They've been behind the scenes talks about some sort of negotiated ceasefire, but I mean, this is very obvious.
You know that it hasn't happened. And it's also just a consistent.
Reminder that any explosion of conflict between Lebanon and Israel would be ten to fifteen times more deadly than anything that's going on in Gaza.
Gaza is a basically asometric conflict.
Hamas has nothing we know one tenth or something of Hesbola's overall military strength. Hasbola is a very very strong military organization. I'm not saying they would win, but they would definitely be able to put up a fight and it would decimate the entire country.
Haswill A leader, Hassan Sraala, has been warning Israel and Israeli leaders. This is in that piece that we just had up on the screen and a speech that launching a war against the group would result in a million evacuees from northern Israel. Right now, I think there's maybe one hundred thousand Israelis who have been evacuated from northern Israel.
Quote to those who threaten us with the widening of the war, if you widen, we will too, he said, adding that those who think the resistance might be afraid are mistaken. Also vowed that Hezbela would only cease fire when the aggression stops, and there is a ceasefire in Gaza.
And it is incredibly important to keep.
This already widened war in perspective, because I actually NBC News did a great job putting this map together of the way that the conflict has spread, and when you see it, it really is astonishing the number of countries that have been pulled in at this point. I mean, you're talking about Lebanon, you're talking about Israel, obviously Israel, Gaza, you're talking about Assyria, you're talking about a Rock, You're talking about Iran, You're even talking about frigging Pakistan getting pulled.
It's just a huge regional swath of course, Yemen, the Red Sea, and then you have US leaders pertend like, oh, our goal to keep this confined to Gaza is totally working out when we're bombing multiple countries over a single weekend, and when these strikes tit for tat strikes between Hesbela and Israel have been going on consistently since post October seventh,
so we never want to lose sight of that. At the same time, you know, there was some I was pretty skeptical, but a little bit of renewed hope that potentially there may be some new ceasefire deal lasting potentially six weeks on the table. But it looks like Boebea's backing out of those talks completely.
Put this up on the screen.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netnyahu ordered the Israeli delegation not to return to Cairo. That's where the negotiations were ongoing for further negotiations for a hostage release deal with Hamas that were scheduled to take place in the Egyptian capital today. In light of the move, By the way, the families of hostages are absolutely furious. They said they intend to demonstrate in front of the Idea of headquarters in Tel Aviv in protest of quote the decision to sacrifice the
lives of the hostages. And you know, I mean, I'm a broken record on this. We've talked about a thousand times. Babe has no incentive to end this war. He's fearful that if there is some significant length of a ceasefire that'll be very difficult to go back to the overwhelming level of aggression that they have been using in the Gaza Strip previously. So he does not want to make
a deal. The far right parts of his coalition are dead set against it and have basically threatened to completely blow up his government if he goes forward with any sort of significant deal with himas so that's why I've been skeptical that this would work out from the beginning. But you do have this counter domestic pressure of the families of hostages, and not just the families of hostages, but the majority of Israelis who want the primary goal
of the war to be returning the hostages. And so, you know, short circuiting and pulling out completely of these negotiated talks, any sort, you know, really short circuiting any possibility that they're going to come to a deal in the short term could be very politically difficult for him to sustain. Domestically, obviously, the US has made clear that we want them to be involved in some of the ceasefire.
They clearly don't give a shit about what we have to say.
And since the Biden administration is completely unwilling to use any sort of actual leverage or pressure I don't think our stance on this is it's pretty much irrelevant. Whatever our stands are on this is so sager. Really, the only hope you have for pressure is coming from the Israeli domestic populace.
I feel for them, I really do, especially the families and all of them, because it's just so difficult because you have a military operation being mounted in your name, you've only had two people be rescued, and then you have active attempts at this point where the government is antithetical to the overall aims. If really when you put when you pair it like that, and you look, you know, in all that to the future, the government is really
not responding to the wills of the populace. And that's one of those where that's why I do find it outrageous in many respects. Is you know, we talk about Israel as a monolith.
It's not.
You know, it may not necessarily align with some of the most propaalacity in people, but it's a nuanced country and they they really do want an actual ceasefire, or not a seasfire deal, but a hostage negotiation deal, and they probably would be willing to put up with the ceasefire at least for a prolonged period of time if it meant the release of all of their hostages.
So they and the government do not agree on this.
The government's position is a ceasefire for like maybe a portion of time before resumption of hostilities. I haven't seen enough polling though to confirm my suspicion, but basically, from what we've seen, I think a decent portion of the public would probably agree to at least a significant cease fire of several months in exchange for all of the hostages to be released.
There was that poll and I'm going to get the enough numbers roughly correct, but don't quote me on the exact numbers here. But they asked, Israelis, is your top priority for this war bringing home the hostages or eradicating Hamas? And a majority said the top priority should be bringing home the hostages. And it was somewhere in the thirties, like I want to say, like thirty six percent that said,
you know, the goal should be eradicating humas. But the reality of the net Yahoo coalition is, you know, it's extremely far right and very tied in with the most fringe elements within Israeli society, and that's why they're not only allowing, but encouraging these psycho demonstrators to block AID from going into the strip, you know. I mean this is being done with the tacit and sometimes explicit support of the Israeli government.
So that is the type of ideology that you're dealing with here.
There you go, Crystal, what are you taking a look at?
Well?
Israeli liberal news outlet Haretz just published a piece for their Hebrew language audience that reaches breath taking new levels of dehumanization and tone deafness. Piece was highlighted and documented
by a Twitter user called Gowan mac Quote. Haretz has published in Hebrew, not English, an incomprehensibly vile article in the style of a lifestyle cooking feature about israel soldiers finding and cooking with ingredients in the kitchens of Gosans who had to flee their homes and are now starving. I was also able to pull up the article and use Google Translate to verify the content is indeed as
represented in this Twitter thread. Basically, for this feature, they interview several idea of soldiers about how they scrounge around in the bomb homes of gossens combine these pilfered goods with their own rations, and then prepare bountiful feasts that help them take a much needed mental break from all of that hard genocide work. It's replete with images of these thieving chefs and the culinary delights that they concocted in the family homes of terrorized Palestinians.
Just take a look at this.
Scrumptious dish that the article labors labels brushetta a la gaza. I guess the scent of smoking ruins, death and ambiance of utter devastation really brings out the flavor, doesn't it.
Guys.
Here we see some war bodies sharing a meal with the caption warm meal. We understood that it is possible to fight and take part in campaigns and yet eat well. And this became the story of our unit. How heartwarming will time away from rating hospitals and terrorized children to cherish a basic life necessity which you are currently denying to the entire Gaza population.
The story of.
Your unit being the elaborate meals you prepare as you impose on gossens, a story of a daily search for scraps, any concerns about the war crime laden context are shrugged off by both writer and soldiers. Aurets ask casually about quote the feelings of cooking and eating in Gaza family homes. The response at least pro Google translate quote There are mixed feelings, no doubt. After all, I use their tools in their house when they are not here. But on the other hand, we have to eat. In the end,
the urge and desire to eat increases. It is important to clarify that these are abandoned houses, some of them destroyed or destined for demolition. And this is the way the idea fights in Gaza. Oh yes, we are well aware of how you fight in Gasa. Back in December, the Wall Street Journal reported that a full seventy percent of Gosen homes had either been damaged or destroyed, part of the complete destruction of civilian life that has been one of the actual primary goals of the Israelis reponse.
That's part of the context in which this glossy lifestyle feature was produced, soldiers quartering and pilfering in the very homes they forced families out of through sheer terror. The other context is the mass famine that these soldiers are helping to impose on Gozzin's as they steal the food from their houses. In fact, we just learned this week from the head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, that children in Gaza are now actually dying of starvation.
Here a Senator Chris man Holland revealing this horror on the Senate floor, just before, of course, still voting to fund the war criminals.
Yesterday I began to hear reports of people who have actually starved to death in Gaza. So earlier today I asked the head of the World Fold Program, former American Ambassador Cindy McCain, about these reports. I sent her a note text message asking about reports that some children have now crossed the awful threshold from being on the verge of starvation to dying of starvation. She wrote back, and I quote.
This is true.
We are unable to get in enough food to keep people from the brink. Famine is imminent. I wish I had better news end quote.
Now we knew that this was coming back. In December, the UN reported that half of Gazen's were at risk of starving. The entire population was going hungry. The chief economists at the UN World Food Program put it this way to the New Yorker's Isaac Chatner. If you look at the total numbers of starving people right now, eighty percent of the people, or four out of five people in famine or a catastrophic type of hunger are in Gaza right now.
That report, of course, came before the US led the charge.
To defund UNRA, the primary aid organization on the ground in Gaza. Also came before Israeli Minister Bezaliel Smotrich decided to use our acceptance of their evidence free attacks on UNRA to block critical shipments of flower were from reaching the Gaza Strip. And it was before the most psychotic people in the world began blocking aid shipments from entering the Gaza Strip with the tacit and at times explicit
backing of the Israeli government, police and military. Here you can see a festive rave atmosphere with Israeli's dancing and celebrating while they endeavor to starve the neighboring Palestinian population to death. According to a Washington Post report on these protesters, every explosion in Gaza raises a cheer dead dead dead Arabs won camper shouts at a roaring volley of outgoing fire. Then she notes the presence of a reporter. Humus, she
corrects herself. The protester allowed to continue for the same reason that illegal settlers allowed to violently steal Palestinian land. Their actions support official government policy, as you have Galant stated famously at the beginning of the siege, he announced a complete siege of Gaza. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly. At the pro starvation rave protesters shake hands with Idea of soldiers and absolutely nothing
of the single police car on the scene. Per the Washington Post, these dancing pro starvation israelis really the perfect side dish to accompany the feasting of the occupying soldiers, because in between courses of their Instagram where the Brushetta a la Gaza Idea soldiers have done their part in making sure Gaza starvation is here to say, here you can see them destroying food warehouses in northern Gaza, an action documented by an IDF soldier who proudly posted his
contributions to the famine war crime on social media. In addition to destroying homes and other civilian structures, the IDF has also made a point of raising gosen farmland, destroying greenhouses and olive groves so that Gaza's already limited food production capacity is further degraded for the long term, starvation now and starvation forever. Well, why focus on all of that ugliness when we could instead feast our eyes upon the gourmet treats these soldiers were able to scrape together.
Behold their delight at stealing Gaza family provisions. Soldier Nadab says, the Gazen kitchen is rich in spices. In every house, you find a lot of mixed spices like you find in chops. There's lots of lentils, so we did a lot of cooking with lentils. In every house we were in, there were olives they had made, which we tasted. There is olive oil in every house and it helps diversify and make the food tasty. There is this spice sauce that is very good. Sometimes we come across special things.
Suddenly we find garlic and we make pasta with garlic and tomato. I came across caramelasses which we added to porrige, and that was delicious, so lovely for them. Meanwhile, the Gossans who have survived the terror of bombardment and knock, but two point zero have told reporters that they have been reduced to eating grass. Now, Harats, it's not the worst Israeli news outlet. Actually, it's one of the best.
They've done important, and they've done courageous reporting that we have oftentimes relied on that even Harats could casually publish. This appalling, repellent trash speaks to just how thoroughly Palestinians have been dehumanized, how blinded Israeli society is by apartheid in militarism, and how oblivious they are to the way the rest of the world views their actions with utter and complete revulsion and saga. I think it's a bit of a tell that they at least knew.
And if you want to hear my reaction to Crystal's monologue, become a premium subscriber today at Breakingpoints dot Com.
All right, saga are we looking at?
Well?
Perhaps the most irksome thing about the debate around Ukraine funding is how completely unmoored it is from reality. Ukraine, which is one of the most corrupt countries on Earth, is suddenly the frontline of democracy. We should support Ukraine also so that we don't have to fight a future war with Russia, or we must supply Ukraine now because they're right on the cusp of victory. Now. I've done multiple monologues about those first two propositions and why they're ridiculous.
But let's really focus on the final part here. What exact difference would another sixty six billion dollars to Ukraine actually make on the ground. Let's focus on some major developments in the Ukrainian military to see who exactly that we are supplying. Just days before the Senate passed the Ukraine aid bill, President Zelenski fired the overwhelmingly popular head
of the Ukrainian military Forces, General Valerie Zaluni. The critical difference between the two was Zeluni's crime of telling the truth. The split between the two happened after he was too frank in a recent Economist interview where he admitted that the war was a stalemate between Ukraine and Russia and that absence some major change in conditions on the ground,
very little would change in the future. For this crime, Zelenski not only fired him and eliminated a man with a ninety two percent approval rating in the country who could plausibly have challenged him for leadership in the future if things went south. In his place, he has now put in a new top general named Alexander Sirski. Sirski's pedigree in Ukraine is this. He led a long time ago to successful counter offensive in the early days of the Ukraine War, but since has now earned a nickname
inside the country by the armed forces. The people he now commands. That nickname is the Butcher. He has that nickname because he is the one responsible for the idiotic and murderous last stand in the city of Bachmat earlier last year. Sirski, who has educated at the military Academy in Moscow, has embraced fully Soviet style war of attrition tactics in a war which he put on full display
in the Bachwent battle. The problem is that he forgot he does not have the Soviet industrial might at his back, and he wasted tens of billions of dollars of US weapons, ammunition, and perhaps most importantly, thousands of Ukrainian professional soldiers' lives, only to end up losing the entire battle. The so called Butcher shows us no signs that he's changing his tactics, which means this an extra sixty six billion to Ukraine is a check to this man to continue throwing Ukrainian
lives into a meat grinder with no discernible goal. For a preview of what we could be funding if any dollars continue to flow into this country, look at what Sirski is doing right now. Ukraine is throwing its best troops into the city of Atvika in the hopes of staving off a so far successful Russian offensive. However, analysts are noting that loss has sustained so far by the Ukrainian forces in the battle.
Indicate they are being billeted all together.
The Ukrainians in barracks very tightly, despite frequently being targeted successfully by Russian forces. The surmised reason is dark they all have to be kept together to stop them from running away. In effect, they are prisoners of their state, being forced to defend the city in old school tactics, with no choice to.
Flee of their own.
Consider that at this point most of the able bodied patriotic men in Ukraine are either dead or maimed for life. The average age inside the Ukrainian military at this point is somewhere between forty and fifty years old.
Consider that average means that there are many who are much older than that.
Furthermore, multiple reports now indicate that Ukraine is resorting to literally kidnapping men off the street previously exempt from military forces and joining them to forcing them to join up. More So, it is clear the Ukrainian enthusiasm to fight is waning amongst the surviving able bodied men.
In estimated six hundred.
And fifty many thousand men of conscription age have fled the country illegally. I can personally attest through my own recent travels in Hungary and Austria. The streets are crawling with Ukrainians and it is an open secret that rich Ukrainian men have been living outside the country now in luxury for two years straight. They have no intention to go back and fight. What brings us to a final point, Ukraine does not have a major weapons and ammunition problem.
It has a man power problem. Every dollar and bullet shipped East is going to prolong a conflict with the most predictable end of all time. The only question how much more bloodshed and how many more poor and mentally disabled people will be caught in the crossfire. In the meantime, the humanitarian thing to do is to stop military aid
and pressure both sides to a negotiated solution. President Putin of Russia recently told Tucker Carlson that if aid does stop flowing to Ukraine, he would consider a peace deal with the United States.
Maybe he's lying. There's only one way to find out, though.
Unfortunately this was immediately shot down by the Biden administration, who seemed to believe that there is some rosy alternative ahead where the grim truth is now clear for us all to see. Ukraine needs to accept their victory is being able to survive with intact territory at all. The sooner that we relieve them of their delusions of grandeur, the sooner that we can restore peace not only to the world, but to save untold numbers of Ukrainian lives.
I mean, Christal, it's stunning, like the Butcher.
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